I know Bills fans are hoping that is still the case because it's been one hell of a week.

If Bills fans are experts on one thing, it is adversity.

They have seen their Bills lose four Super Bowls and countless other games in the most gut-wrenching manner possible. Their team is the only one in the 21st century that has not participated in the NFL Playoffs.

I don't need to list those haunting losses here. They are forever burned into the memories of Bills fans like their own phone number or the name of their first girlfriend.

But those were just football games.

The franchise they follow so closely and cheer for so passionately, no matter what pain it causes them, is hurting itself in a manner that can't be fixed with a free agent signing or a trade or a win on Sunday.

The real world has hit Bills fans this week harder than Mike Stratton hit Keith Lincoln in the 1964 AFL Championship game.

Because that's what Kelly does. Jim Kelly is the living, breathing model of toughness in a tough town like Buffalo.

When a mother or father needs a teachable moment for their children, they can always talk about No. 12. He's become a new generation's version of "I used to walk to school 10 miles, up hill both ways, barefoot, in the snow!"

It's not just what Jim did on the field either. The man's life story would get you laughed out of a Hollywood screen writer's office because it wouldn't seem possible.

Images of Kelly in a hospital bed sent out by his daughter, Erin, this week have left Bills fans breathless and humbled that cancer doesn't care what Kelly means to Buffalo, to his family, to the thousands he has inspired in his tireless efforts to bring awareness to Krabbe disease, which killed his son, Hunter, before his ninth birthday.

He'll fight cancer, again, with everything he has because that's what Jim Kelly does.

It was inspiring to see a picture of Kelly's former teammates Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed and Bruce Smith this week visiting Kelly.

He took a chance on Buffalo in 1959 with a $25,000 franchise fee and the desire to be a football owner. That led to a charter membership with seven other men who were dubbed "The Foolish Club," who dared to take on the mighty NFL with their new league.

All Wilson and the men who formed the AFL did was change football forever.

“The strength of the Bills franchise is the passion of the fans,” Wilson said after signing a 15-year lease deal in 1997. “Buffalo is a community of down-to-earth, hard-working families who, in large numbers, are also avid sports fans. You know how the people here feel about you because they are very straightforward. That is a quality I admire.”

The people of Western New York and Bills fans across the region, including so many in Syracuse, appreciated Wilson's loyalty to them and will forever owe him a debt of gratitude for honoring his promise to keep the team in Orchard Park.

We also owe him that gratitude for serving our nation in the Navy during World War II, earning the Commendation Medal, given for sustained acts of heroism or meritorious service.

We knew this day was coming. Wilson's health had been failing for some time now.

For the past couple seasons, Wilson couldn't make it to the stadium named after him to watch his Bills play.

Knowing something like this is coming doesn't make it any easier to take.

Which makes the future even harder to process for Bills fans.

Speculation about the future of the Buffalo Bills franchise upon Wilson's death has been the subject of debate for years.

Now that Wilson has passed, those discussions go from fantasy to reality and a whole new clock starts ticking.

The Bills have a lease with Erie County and New York State that runs through 2022.

To get out of that lease, the team would have to pay a $400 million penalty ... with one exception. There is an out-clause that would allow the team a one-time option, in 2020, to buy out the final three years of the deal for a payment of only $28.4 million.

But as described by Mark Gaughan in the Buffalo News:

"Ultimately, however, Wilson's estate will have the fiduciary responsibility to take roughly the best offer it can get for the franchise."

Bills fans can only hope whoever provides that "best offer" for the franchise intends to keep it in Buffalo.

Until we know exactly what the post-Ralph Wilson era will look like (and boy doesn't that sound weird to say) visions of Toronto or Los Angeles scooping up the Bills will be harder to brush away now that Wilson is not here to dig in his heels and keep the team where he planted them.

But that's just another day in the life of a Buffalo Bills fan.

A life filled with challenges, adversity and dealing with part of life that hits you square in the gut.

Sure, it is a life full of four straight Super Bowl losses, painful memories of Monday night collapses to Dallas and Cleveland, the "Music City Miracle" and going 0-for-the 70's against Miami.

But it is also a life full of the greatest comeback in NFL history, the "K-Gun," "Bruuuuce," the "electric company," the best tailgating in the NFL, the "Shout!" song and yes, four straight Super Bowls.

Bills fans will rally around their Hall of Fame quarterback to win the toughest game of his life as they honor and remember the man that brought professional football to them...all while wondering how much longer they'll have a team to root for in the wake of his death.